SMASH guidelines structural measures against sexual harassment
Acknowledgements Dear reader, These guidelines are the product of a long process of discovery, research, trial and error. We would like to express our gratitude to a number of people and institutions whose contributions were vital to the project. Firstly, we want to thank the European Youth Foundation and its secretariat members. The SMASH Project is funded primarily through the annual work plan grant of EYF and could never have happened without their generous support. However, beyond the financial means, we want to take this opportunity to thank the people behind the institution’s name. Our friends at the EYF Secretariat have been understanding and flexible during the whole duration of the project and the cooperation and direct communication has always been smooth. Secondly, we express our gratitude to the Erasmus+ funded GENDERS Project. Sexual harassment cannot be addressed without taking a gender perspective into account and the aims of the two projects clearly overlapped. We want to thank the European Commission for allowing us to co-fund the SMASH project, which made the implementation feasible. Thirdly, we want to thank all the trainers of our three training events. They are the ones that spent time and effort to design the sessions for the Safe Person training conferences. A part of the content of these guidelines has also been created under their guidance as first drafts were worked on during the training events. Naturally, we also want to thank the local organisers of these conferences for their volunteered time and effort to provide us with the logistical opportunities to host the events. Fourthly, we want to share our thankfulness to all the participants of our training events. Their feedback on our content and methods have been invaluable. But most importantly, they are the ones that took the responsibility to pilot the Safe Person method in events. They have acted as a listening ear to victims and increased their skills in creating a safe environment for youth around the continent. Finally, we want to thank everyone that has at some point been part of or acted as an adviser to the SMASH project team. This project is, above all, a human effort to contribute to a better world and it would not have been possible without the countless hours spent by the team.
index Introduction Policies Code of conduct Guidelines for member organisations of an international NGOs Safe persons Concept Prevention Detection Reaction Training & Selection Limitations Events with Safe Persons People Specific team Mindful Human Resources strategies: Active bystanders Selection process Knowledge transfer Informal communication Logistics Accommodation and location Welcome packs Transport Financial Materials Drinks Social program Content Check-ups Workshops Where to seek help locally Communication Before the event During the event After the event
introduction The aim of the project titled SMASH (Structural Measures Against Sexual Harassment) is to create a sustainable system to prevent and tackle the problem of sexual harassment in (youth) organisations, as well as other events and activities involving youth, using AEGEE as a pilot but ensuring the replicability, scalability and dissemination of our activities. During this project, AEGEE was been able to further increase its expertise and enlarge the pool of members who are trained to prevent, detect and react to cases of sexual harassment (named Safe Persons). Apart from trained youth workers on being Safe Persons, one of the aims of the project is to create this document, which contains guidelines for local, national and European organisations and initiatives to implement a system to prevent, detect and react to sexual harassment. More in detail, in this document you will find: • How to implement a system where individuals can proactively prevent, detect and react to sexual harassment. • Which organizational structures and measures need to be in place to create a safer environment. Thanks to the feedback from an expert on sexual harassment, the impact collected from the events organized by SMASH (2 trainings for youth workers and 1 training for trainer) and the 7 piloting events where we tested our Safe Persons, these guidelines are adaptable to different realities and environments (different kind of events, different sizes, different settings, different cultural backgrounds), by being tested in different situations and events. If you have any questions about these guidelines or how to implement them, feel free to contact safe.person@aegee.eu or headoffice@aegee.eu. More information at www.aegee.org/smash
policies Code of conduct Create a code of conduct and have it ratified through the official structure of your organisation. Creating policies that outline what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour and detailing what happens in case of the latter is the first step in tackling sexual harassment. The main added value of such a code is to legitimise the existence of the issue and to publicly and internally acknowledge that these behaviors do not have a place in the organisation. It gives a common understanding of which lines not to cross. Besides, it establishes a standard procedure of reaction, supporting youth workers when facing this cases and facilitating the reaction. It helps to ensure that steps can be effectively taken in order to react to cases of sexual harassment, and therefore it is essential that each organisation creates a guide of possible measures which can be applied in the organisation. A code of conduct should not be limited to be about sexually inappropriate behaviour, but include other unacceptable behaviour such as, but not limited to violence, theft and privacy violations. If such a policy already exists in your organisation, we recommend to specify cases of sexual harassment in it if that is not already the case. The most serious internal measure that can be regulated in a code of conduct is the banning of an individual. Depending on your structure as on organisation, you might black list banned persons from your events or suspend their membership altogether.
The basic elements of a code of conduct are: • The scope of the document (to whom and when it applies) • A description of prohibited behaviour (what is unacceptable) • A complaint procedure (where to go, how it works and who are the actors. Make sure to explain the whole procedure and regulate independence of actors) • A list of potential sanctions (what can happen to perpetrators) • A system for appeal or review (what can people do after a decision) • Privacy regulations (how is the privacy and anonymity secured of all parties involved at different stages) • Any other provisions specific to your organisation Always check if the country where you are registered in has any prescribed elements for these kind of policies.
Guidelines for member organisations of an international NGOs Adapt the general guidelines for your local or national member organisations: These guidelines are written from the perspective of an international and/ or umbrella youth organisation. This has implications for elements such as cultural perspectives, but also for the available resources of an organisation. Local or even national member organisations may not have the same capacity to deal with the situation and can benefit greatly from centralised support. We recommend to (help) adapt these guidelines for the local reality. There are several factors that should be kept into account while doing so. In smaller organisations, the role of the board is often more important and more direct. They need to be made aware of their responsibility to tackle the issue. Raising awareness among their members is one of the priorities. This topic is discussed later in these guidelines in general, but it is recommended to help member organisations with an adapted approach. Furthermore, the board always has an example function, but even more so in member organisations. They need to be made aware of their influence on the overall environment.
Member organisation activities can be different in two major ways. Firstly, it is possible that they operate (mostly) within one cultural reality. This means that the content of sessions needs to be tailored to those cultural aspects. What is accepted or not is not the same in every country. It is important to become aware of these cultural differences and tailor awareness workshops to them, whilst also pushing for some sort of international understanding. Think about how certain remarks about people’s clothing or appearance might be considered a compliment or a sexist insult depending on what cultural norms someone is used to. Similarly, what is considered normal flirting behaviour in one country, is considered harassment in another. This does not mean, however, that all behaviour should be tolerated based on cultural freedom. By giving workshops on harassment, consent and gender perspectives, a shared understanding can be created. An example of such a workshop can be found among the trainer’s toolkit which will be discussed later. Secondly, while international conferences usually see a large group of people come together from all over the world for a short period of time, member organisations might deal with smaller groups of people that stay together over a long period of time. One of the implications of this is that perpetrator and victim will not naturally part ways after a few days. This requires special attention in dealing with follow-up process. While follow-up is always important, it becomes more vital and more complicated when the involved parties would continue to see each other at weekly or monthly events in member organisations. Therefore, the previously mentioned code of conduct has to be well developed in member organisations to ensure correct procedures are in place. They can largely copy the general code of conduct, but have to adapt the scope of the document to cover their organisation and their type of events. What also has to be taken into account is that the people dealing with cases of sexual harassment will have a stronger connection and more history with the people they have to care for or judge. This requires special attention for the selection of safe persons, as their independence and neutrality has to be without question.
safe persons Concept Implement a system of safe persons into the organisation. The central pillar of the SMASH guidelines evolve around the concept of safe persons. These are specially trained volunteers that aim to prevent, detect and react to cases of sexual harassment in the organisation. They are present at events to help raise awareness about the topic, intervene in questionable situations and provide a listening ear to victims. Below we go into the three elements in more detail
Prevention The main target is always to prevent sexual harassment from happening. Safe persons contribute to this in several ways. Before the start of an event, they can talk with the organisers to discuss good practices in terms of general prevention of sexual harassment. This relates to sleeping arrangements, social program, designated safe spaces and other logistical manners, all described in other chapters of these guidelines. Furthermore, it is recommendable that the safe persons provide a presentation or workshop on sexual harassment and consent to the whole audience of the event to make people directly aware of their own behaviour and cultural norms. In international events, sexual harassment is often influenced by misunderstanding between cultural norms and miscommunication between people that do not share a native language. Being aware of these differences can help prevent “unintentional harassment�. Furthermore, the attention to the topic makes the participants more conscious about whether their actions are correct. When piloting the safe person system in international conferences, participants have evaluated that the presence of a safe person made them reflect on their behaviour more.
Detection Safe persons are trained to detect behaviours of sexual harassment, especially during social program activities such as social drinks and parties. They will walk around the location and keep an eye on the participants in a non-intrusive/obvious way. When they do not trust a particular situation, they have experience in how to de-escalate interactions. For example, they could separate two people in such a way that those involved did not necessarily realise there was an intervention. This of course depends on the specific context. Through this the safe persons perform an extreme variation of active bystandership.
Reaction Even with proper prevention and detection measures in place, it cannot be guaranteed that no sexual harassment occurs. Therefore, the safe persons are also trained to react to instances where a report comes in. They are a general point of contact where people can come to if they felt harassed. The safe person serves as a first line of contact and provides a type of first aid. They can bring people to a safe place, away from whomever they felt harassed by. They are trained in first response and can serve as a coordinator for further action. This could, for example, be to advise the organisers that a person showed such inappropriate behaviour that removal from the event should be considered. If necessary, they can assist the victim in their process of informing authorities or finding appropriate professional help. Throughout the process the safe person will not take any decisions, but act only upon request of or in consultation with the victim. Furthermore, decisions and actions regarding what happens to people and an event remain with the organisers or boards.
Training & Selection Only use a system of safe persons with trained individuals and evaluate their performance. The necessity for the SMASH project was noticed in AEGEE after the first attempts to have safe persons at our general assemblies. It became apparent that it is unsafe for both volunteer and victim to try to provide the previously described services when there is insufficient knowledge or experience. Therefore, it is extremely important to implement a system of quality control when selecting safe persons. We recommend to only allow volunteers that have attended a specialised training event to fulfil the role of safe person. The SMASH project has developed and tested a training methodology that is now freely available at aegee.org/smash. It includes the outline for a four day training conference, with session outlines for each part. This allows other organisations to implement the safe person system without having to reinvent the wheel. While the trainer’s toolbox is designed in such a way that any experienced trainer can use it, it should be noted that experience in the field of sexual harassment should be seen as a must. Trainers need to have a deep understanding of gender perspectives and it advisable to have a minimum of two trainers per event, at least one of them being female. After volunteers have been trained, they are not necessarily ready to become a safe person. A careful consideration by both the trainers and the coordinating body should be used to evaluate somebody’s progress. After capacity building in your organisation, newly trained safe persons can be guided by more experienced safe persons through a mentorship programme.
Limitations It should be noted that the safe persons are still volunteers, not professionals. The SMASH training methodology has been tested and adjusted based on feedback and evaluation of the participants and on piloting the safe person system in large and small scale international events. However, after one training event the volunteers obviously do not have the same level of experience and fully trained and educated psychologists.
We are aware of this, and therefore the training methodology also specifically focuses on the limits of what a safe person can or should do. They are there to provide the first response, not to try and provide the care of official authorities or professionals. In traumatic cases, a safe person must always advise the victim to seek professional help. Furthermore, we highly recommend to seek out partnerships with professionals that are willing to function as and adviser or are on standby in case there is a serious case that needs more experienced care.
Events with Safe Persons Send safe persons to events whenever possible To benefit from having safe persons, it is vital that as many events as possible are attended by safe persons. However, it is important to note that the number of safe persons at an event should be kept proportional to the amount of participants and the length of the event. Lessons from the piloting of the SMASH project suggest that there should be at least two safe persons per event, regardless of the size. Again, we recommend to have at least one woman. This allows participants some choice in who they feel more comfortable with to approach, but also safeguards the mental health of the safe persons as they will not have to be “on duty” for the whole duration of the event without breaks. When determining the number of safe persons needed, it is first of all important to see if they would have any other duties or activities besides being a safe person. In youth organisations, it will often happen that the volunteers that act as a safe person, do it part time. Having part time safe persons allows for more flexibility and a wider pool of potential people, but it also causes the work to be more straining. Therefore, it’s preferable that safe persons don’t take shifts more than two days in a row. Furthermore, we advise to have a minimum of two safe persons on duty per night for events with more than a hundred people. If it is not possible for (enough) safe persons to attend an event, it is still possible to involve them. You could assign one or a few safe persons to help the organisers of an event make their event safer. Furthermore, the safe persons could be on standby, remotely, to provide advice to those in charge if something happens and gets reported to them.
people specific team Create a team inside your NGO (a committee, working group…) which is specialized in tackling cases of sexual harassment and gender based violence. In order to ensure proper prevention, detection and reaction, it is always recommended to work with a person or a team of people in the organisation that are specialised in tackling sexual harassment and accompanying victims. • If it is a person, it can be assigned the role of Safe Person in a broader, permanent way. • If it is a team, it can take the form of a committee, commission, working group, etc. This team or person would work closely with at least one board member, in order to coordinate the actions of the organisation and to call the board for action if needed. This means that there should be a good cooperation, but also the option for some distance and independence as the board might be directly or indirectly involved in cases. It is of vital importance that these people are trained on preventing, detecting and reacting against sexual harassment. For more info and materials on the topic, you can check the SMASH trainers´ toolbox and training package for Safe Persons at aegee.org/smash.
Things to take into account: • A way to keep quality control is needed. • Enforce strong data privacy rules for whom deals with sexual harassment cases. • The reported cases should always be treated confidentially. If there is no trust that cases won’t become public, people won’t report cases of sexual harassment. Thus, make sure that only certain members of the team will know about names and details of reported sexual harassment cases. Depending on the size of the team, it is not always necessary that the whole team has to know the names and all the details of the cases. Communicate these data privacy rules to your members in order to establish the needed trust towards the team. • Create a clear division of powers and roles between the Safe Persons (the trained youth workers who prevent, detect and react to sexual harassment) and the organizers of the event where the Safe Person is present. • Allow the Safe Person to follow-up on cases of sexual harassment, for example by checking in which events is a certain person taking part.
Mindful Human Resources strategies: Apply a gender perspective in your Human Resources strategy, make sure to empower people of all genders and make sure to oppose structures of oppression. Sexual harassment often comes from replication of gender roles and structures of privileges and power in modern societies. It is essential when tackling sexual harassment to address those in order to prevent it from happening. How can this be done? • Encourage a zero-tolerance culture to sexist and homophobic behaviours • Avoid gender stereotypes and gender roles • Empower women • Create safe spaces • Work on deconstructing toxic masculinity • Encourage participatory spaces where everyone feels free to participate • Encourage flat and horizontal structures • Take into account the needs of everyone • Leave space for emotions to be expressed • Use positive role models that challenge gender stereotypes
Active bystanders Create and deliver a workshop on how to be active bystanders To end sexual harassment implies a holistic change in society. Few trained people can make a first step, but more steps have to be taken in order to create a sustainable system which prevents and tackles the problem of sexual harassment. By raising awareness of sexual harassment, people will be sensibilized to be more attentive towards their social environment. A workshop for your members on active bystander can be a further step in order to enhance the change. This workshop should target youth workers and volunteers in general. It can also be included in events to reach out to other participants and the broader public. The main learning outcomes of the workshop for active bystanders are: • Participants are familiar with the topic of consent and sexual harassment • Participants have the tools to react when they witness a situation of the kind in order to prevent further harm from happening to the victim • Focus on making members active bystanders to prevent sexual harassment and create a zero-tolerance culture
What is an Active Bystander? Everybody is a Bystander at some time. A Bystander is a person who observes a conflict or unacceptable behaviour. It might be something serious or minor, one-time or repeated, but the Bystander knows that the behaviour is destructive or likely to make a bad situation worse. An active bystander takes steps that can make a difference and make clear to the perpetrator that their behavior is not acceptable. Thus, members of your organization should be trained to take action if they observe any kind of harassment. First, an active bystander assesses a situation to determine what kind of help, if any might be appropriate. Second, an active bystander evaluates options and chooses a strategy for responding. 1 Those strategies can e.g. be seeking help from a friend or the Safe Person. In other cases they might feel comfortable enough to start a conversation with the perpetrator telling them that they should stop their behavior or talking about any other topic in order to distract the perpetrator so that the harassed person can get to a safe space. But of course only intervening without putting themselves in danger.
Selection process Implement several measurements in your selection process In order to prevent sexual harassment in your event or organization, you can already apply several measures during the selection process of participants and organisers. This should make sure that persons who had shown inappropriate behavior in other events should not been selected that easily than persons who have always behaved in an appropriate way. 1
http://web.mit.edu/bystanders/definition/index.html
For participants • The board of the youth NGO which the applicant is a member of should be able to leave comments for the event organizers. • Take care of gender balance among the participants • Eventually, evaluate the possibility to hold a Skype call or selection interview with the applicant. For organisers • Give priority to the ones that go through a training on tackling sexual harassment • Take care of gender balance within your team • Consider the motivation of the organisers e.g. through letting them write a motivation letter on why they would like to join the organiser team
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Keep records of sexual harassment cases and make sure that the relevant people (and only they) have access to it. Keep into account the confidentiality of this data according to the current General Data Protection Regulation. The records should also describe how the case was handled so that there can be a blueprint for future cases. It is important to remove all names from records and just have anonymous cases. In Knowledge Transfer processes, include a section on gender mainstreaming, gender awareness and sexual harassment. Consider this is an equal section to the others in Knowledge Transfer processes.
Informal communication Informal communication includes e.g. communication between event participants, between organisers and participants, among organisers, as well as communication on social media and advertisement of the event. You can get inspiration on campaigns such as no hate speech by the Council of Europe in order to raise awareness on non-violent communication.
Below we give you some advice: • Avoid sexist communication • Avoid gender stereotypes • Check your communication on social media through a gender perspective • Remember that verbal harassment is another form of harassment. Do not minimise these cases of harassment.
Logistics When you organize an event, you also have to take into account its logistics. The main goal must be to secure a safe space during the event. For that reason, you have to prepare different aspects in advance.
Accommodation and location Choosing a good accomodation is essential if you want to get a safe space during the event. We give you tips in order to get it: • Make sure to provide a quiet space within the accommodation and location to create a safe space to talk about sexual harassment cases. You should avoid closed space because the victim after an attack can feel uncomfortable in these types of spaces. • Create a “purple space” during parties where people that feel harassed/not comfortable can go and be safe/relax/be on their own. Normally, these spaces are provided in big events and follow the women-only code, due to the high number of cases that women face. In this space, there is normally at least one safe person to take care of the space and make sure it is a safe space, and whether the victims need to talk or any further action. You can establish “the purple space” inside the party in order to create a safe space where the victim can continue enjoying in a safe way. • However, if you want to implement the “purple space” you also have to consider that there is not unanimously accepted due to it also enforces the idea that the rest of the party is not safe. Also it could stigmatise men and does not allow them to find a safe space if needed. • Make sure to provide security services inside and outside the location. Also, it’s important to raise awareness about Sexual Harassment with these people in order to know how to act when they face such a case. • Make sure the venue and the accommodation is properly illuminated and there are no dark corners. This measure helps a lot to avoid sexual harassment case, but if you have safe person in your event,
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also it will help them to detect the cases. Having separate rooms (not having all the participants in the same room so that victim and perpetrator can be located in different rooms). Also, if your event has different accommodations, adapt them to make participants comfortable with their roommates. Avoid very private rooms (double rooms for participants). Ask participants in advance if they have any issues sharing rooms with any specific gender or any other person and accommodate their needs as much as possible.
Welcome packs The welcome packs are a gift given to participants during the arrival day. You usually share maps of the city, free merchandising, advertisements of organizations that help you… You can take the opportunity to raise awareness about the topic and also avoid unnecessary • Include a brochure with information about Safe Persons (if you have in your event) and how to contact them and also about basic concepts as sexual harassment or consent. • Avoid publicity or information that reproduces gender roles and stereotypes. • Avoid including welcome presents that reproduce gender roles and stereotypes. • Avoid sexualize the welcome pack with items that can make uncomfortable participants. One common item can be condoms. You should be aware that although it promotes healthy sexual relations, it also sexualizes the event and some participants can feel uncomfortable.
Transport The period when participants have to move from one location to another one, is one of the most dangerous for sexual harassment, specially during the night. For that reason, it’s very important to have an organized transport.
Here you have some tips that you can take into account: • Make sure that people do not have to walk back alone in the middle of the night. You can organize groups of people in certain hours. • Transport for those who do not feel comfortable walking back to the accommodation (especially at night). • Have responsible drivers among the organisers team that do not drink. • Have an organiser present in the transportation • Regulation of alcohol usage in the transport. • Limit the number of participants on the transport to avoid overcrowding and too close contact.
Financial The budget of the event is one of the essential parts of an event. If you want to create a safe environment you also should invest part of your resources to get it. This part is essential when you don’t have Safe Person or people with the knowledge in the topic in your event. For this reason, you can dedicate part of your budget for tackling sexual harassment activities: • Reimburse the Safe Person participation fee and travelling expenses. • Dedicate a part of the budget to support the victim of sexual harassment during the event or activity: - Possibility of reimbursing travelling costs and participation fee - Medical and psychological costs - Other transport • When you get fundraising for an event, get funds from donors aligned with the values of tolerance, fighting violence against women and sexual harassment in particular, etc. Avoid promoting or seeking promotion from donors that perpetuate gender roles and gender stereotypes, and instead seek for more ethical, feminist donors. • Brochures and flyers to raise awareness and give information about the safe persons. • A specific phone and SIM card, especially if you have safe persons.
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Covering calls. You can pay for the sim card, internet and the calls that Safe Persons can make. It’s important to take into account when there are participants from different nationalities because it can have extra-costs. Distinctive t-shirts or others, specially for big events where you have safe persons. Bringing experts on the topic.
Materials A good way to raise awareness is creating materials about the topic. It is useful for your events but also social media. Besides, the materials can be shared between organizations. •
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Put posters in toilets and other locations to inform of the presence of a safe person and explain the safe person concept. The posters in toilets have the main role of informing participants of the possibilities available during the event/activity if they suffer from or witness any case of sexual harassment. As toilets are a private space that is used by everyone, you ensure maximum outreach to the target group in this way. Create stickers and other merchandise items in order to raise awareness of the project and the topic. Create a video campaign to promote the safe person and to promote healthy and respectful behaviors, as well as explaining consent, sexual harassment and other concepts related. Presentation in the beginning of the event about the topic and to inform participants of the existing mechanisms they can make use of in case the suffer from or witness any case of sexual harassment . If you have Safe Persons in your event, wear t-shirts for visibility, especially in big events. However, having a distinctive t-shirt it could be counterproductive. Usually when people are going to speak with Safe Person, they want to do it secretly, and it could be difficult if they wear a showy t-shirt. If you have more than one Safe Person per night, a solution could be having at least one safe person without a t-shirt.
Drinks Many cases of sexual harassment and sexual assaults involve alcohol, consumed by the victim, perpetrator or both. For that reason, during the event, if you plan to have alcohol, it’s important to create measures in order to avoid potentially dangerous situations: • If there is alcohol available in your event, promote a healthy drinking culture, and avoid social pressure to drink alcohol. • Restrictions on when to drink alcohol. • Inform participants on the health risks of alcohol. • Provide healthy and nutritious food . • Provide free water. • Make sure soda is cheaper than alcohol. • Put a limit to the amount of alcohol provided.
Social program The social program is the part of the event where participants create networking, enjoy and de-stress. You should focus on that, and try to do not make uncomfortable any participant with this social program, and avoid creating potentially dangerous situations: • Avoid sexualization and sexism in party-themes. • Be inclusive towards LGBTQ+ folks. • Ensure participants get enough sleep during the event. • Offer a varied social program, which do not include only parties but also other activities such a treasure hunt, games where the sexualization or alcohol consumption are not connected.
Content To tackle Sexual Harassment you also should take into account the content of the event. If the topic of the event is connected with the topic will be easy to think about. So it can be beneficial if you start to prepare events about feminism, gender violence or Sexual Harassment. But you also can include the topic in any event you organize. For that, you must take into consideration the next points:
Check-ups Safe Persons should inform and train event organisers before and during the event, paying particular attention to: • Social pressure (to drink, to take part in sexualised games, to share aspects of your personal life…). • If you are organizing a game, workshop, debate... and you think that someone can feel uncomfortable, you should give a trigger warning in case that someone doesn’t want to participate. And also you should rethink if there is no other way to get the same results without risks. • Consent (what it is, why is it important). Consent is the freely given verbal or non-verbal communication of a feeling of willingness to engage in any activity. It’s important to understand that definition for any situation but specially for sexual context. • Power relations (event organisers have a special responsibility because they are in a power position). The organizers should give a good example of behaviours for participants. Also they should be approachable and trustworthy. • Gender, LGBT issues, non binary perspective and feminism: women empowerment, toxic masculinity, deconstructing gender roles,... • Organizers should understand all these concepts in order to create a safe space during the event. They have to create an inclusive communication, trying to make all participants involved.
Workshops Creating Workshops about the topic is one of the best ways of prevention that you can do. Make sure that the workshops are delivered by a person who is knowledgeable about the topic and about NFE methods. Besides that, make sure that the content of the workshop is understandable for people who are not fluent in English, using easy language and explain the main concepts before. Consider translating certain concepts to the target group’s native language for better understanding. An example workshop is available at aegee.org/smash Many times in your events you will have people with a different level of knowledge on the topic. If you have enough resources, you can deliver parallel Workshops in order to create smaller groups with different levels. Also, if you want to create a good impact in your event, you should schedule these workshops in the first day of the event. • Some examples are: • Sexual harassment • How to be an active bystander • Healthy habits and safe spaces • Consent • Gender equality • Violence against women
Where to seek help locally Before the event, you should create a document or presentation on regulations regarding sexual harassment in your country/region/city so organisers know how to react and how to seek for professional help and support just in case. This document/workshop should include a list of contacts and address to reach out to, such as • Centers specialised in Violence Against Women • Psychologists • Hospitals • Police This document is especially important when you organize an international event where participants may not know where to find it by themselves and maybe they will need help with translation there.
Communication Another crucial way to tackle sexual harassment is through communication at any time of your event. You can implement structures of e.g. having a Safe Person, but if nobody knows how the certain person can be approached, the measure won’t be effective.
Before the event Announcement of Safe Person/ Contact Person State clear what a Safe person is. What are the specific tasks of a Safe Person? How can you approach that person? This could easily be done through a FB-Post, a message in the WhatsApp Group of your participants or by indicating the contact of the assigned Safe Person on the badges of your participants. State the possible consequences in the case of a report on sexual harassment Sometimes, people do not report cases of sexual harassment because they think that the team can not make a big difference or they do not know what actions can possibly be taken and thus, they are afraid to report. That’s why you should make it clear at the beginning of your event, which actions can be taken and what consequences could an accused person face. Raise awareness about sexual harassment issues As we stated before, the aim of the measures is to make a holistic change. Therefore, awareness is probably one of the most crucial factors. Awareness can be raised e.g through a (info)graphic which explains the concept of consent and/or statistics which show the prevalence of cases of sexual harassment in your country. Examples can be found on various websites. We would like to emphasize that the graphics should be gender inclusive and no sexist graphics should be used.
Describe the program more extensively and inclusively Do this by sending the program to your participants. State clearly what they should expect. Take into account that maybe not all participants are always or ever interested in partying or going to clubs. Thus, try to include everybody in the program by e.g. offering a fun alternative to parties and drinking. Examples can be a movie night or (board) games.
During the event Present the Safe Person in the first night in the opening ceremony in a positive light At the beginning of the event, present the person who will be in charge of possible cases of sexual harassment. Try to build some trust towards that person by making clear that all information will be treated confidentially. Make sure to explain that it should not be about flashing punishments, but about showing progress. Introducing the Safe Person of the day/activity before it starts If your event lasts several days and your safe person changes during the event, introduce the Safe Person and a way to contact that person of the day/activity before it starts. You can do this by using all the communication channels and identifying labels. Get a SIM card for the Safe Persons team (depending on the event) This guideline goes along with the one of data privacy. By getting a SIM card for the Safe Person, it can be make sure that after the event, the information will remain among the Safe Persons team and will not be spread to others. Moreover, the number stays the same during the whole event, while the phone can be given to the person of the next shift. This creates continuity and makes sure that people can always contact the same number. Furthermore, a dedicated SIM card can have the beneficial effect of creating more trust in the confidential treatment of reported cases.
Look cooperation opportunities during your event with other associations and experts in the field of gender violence Creating cooperation can have several beneficial effects. Experts could present their work during the event or deliver workshops to organizers and/or participants. Moreover, they could provide you with some additional material which can be spread among the participants and thus, raise additional awareness.
After the event Share a survey or feedback form with participants where the opportunity is given to evaluate the Safe Person method and also to share any instance of sexual harassment in an anonymous way Feedback is everything. Only by receiving feedback, you can improve the measures you took. It doesn’t have to be very time consuming. You can create a GoogleForm and send it to the participants after the end of the event, so that they had some days to reflect everything that happened during the event. Alternatively, you can integrate a feedback session on the last day of your event and additionally give your participants the opportunity for anonymous feedback as some might not feel comfortable with giving Feedback on the Safe Person structures in public. Share good practices with other Safe Persons after events This can be done via skype or other communication channels. Sharing good practices with other Safe Person can help both to make your work more efficient and also to take care of your mental health. Being a Safe Person can sometimes be really challenging, but by sharing good practices and experiences with other Safe Persons, you learn how to deal with it and what further can be done.